The Ashcombe Curriculum

Ashcombe Learning Power (ALP)

Focusing

Listening carefully
Seeing and avoiding distractions.
Knowing when you need a break.
Losing yourself in the learning

Looping

What are you trying to do? How will you do it? What do you need? How long will it take?
Using books, other people, internet, …etc.
Changing your plans & ideas if you need to Improving on your first attempt

Socialising

Being a good team member or partner
Understanding how somebody else is thinking/feeling
Knowing when to work alone, with a partner or in a small or large group

Detecting

Spotting patterns, seeing connections between separate ideas, using previous learning in a new context
Seeing fine details and patterns

Distilling

Finding the main points within information presented
Summarising what has been learnt.

Exploring

Using materials, equipment & information with no clear purpose or goal, just to learn more

Imagining

Wondering “What if ….?”
Using visualisation & putting yourself in the place of somebody else

Imitating

Copying others usefully when learning a new skill
Piggybacking on others’ ideas & developing them further

Persevering

Keep going even when it is difficult

Presenting

Showing and explaining your learning to others

Questioning

Asking questions of yourself and others.

Reasoning

Working logically, making a good argument and seeing faults in other people’s ideas

The Ashcombe curriculum has been designed for our children. It allows them to ‘achieve to grow’ as resilient learners, as rounded individuals and as responsible members of a caring community. We believe that our curriculum allows our children to discover and develop further their strengths and talents, to master the basics and understand and use the tools for continuing personal self-improvement. As a school we understand that a progressive education prepares children for an ever changing world. For this reason we believe that the training of the mind to think and understand how to learn is as important as the learning of facts. We build all children’s capacity to learn through our bespoke learning to learn curriculum based on ‘Building Learning Power’ (BLP). This is known as 'Ashcombe Learning Power' (ALP).

Throughout their seven years at Ashcombe our children journey through thirty-eight thematic topics that deepen their understanding and develop the skills of the subjects of the 2014 National Curriculum. Our topics have been designed by us to encourage our children to view these subjects not in isolation but to understand the natural links between them. We strive to ensure our children use the core skills of English, Mathematics and Computing throughout our curriculum. All of our topics begin with a big question which sets the tone for inquiry and encourages our children to develop a sense of wonder about their world. We strive to provide curriculum experiences beyond the school gates and beyond the school day.

We want our children to understand that life is full of choices. To help them lead a fulfilling life we will provide opportunities that stretch their capabilities and broaden their horizons. Our curriculum advocates ‘learning without limits’ allowing children to choose their level of challenge and become leaders of their own learning. All of our children have regular opportunities to make their voice heard through our weekly family circle meetings. We listen to our children and take their views into account to improve their curriculum and influence how their school is managed each day.

As part of our local collaboration of four primary schools we hope to inspire and be inspired by shared experiences and mutual understanding. Our curriculum benefits from these shared experiences with even greater opportunities for competition, celebration and learning together. We recognise that learning at its best is often a social experience.

Together we nurture one another, we value everyone and we motivate ourselves and others.

All of our topics derive from a big question. All of these are displayed in the overview below. As each topic is planned for, teaching staff plan a topic enquiry loop that includes greater detail based on a series of smaller questions.

Please click on the links for current and completed topics to see these topic enquiry loops.

We hope that this provides an insight into our wider curriculum in an accessible format allowing families to support and extend their children's learning.

Year group

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Foundation Stage

The Foundation Stage curriculum uses objective led planning to develop the whole child.

Tops vary throughout the year and are developed from quality texts, current themes and children's interests.